Spain flooding ‘catastrophe’ should serve as a warning, EU says at nature summit

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European officials pointed Thursday to devastating flooding in Spain as a reminder of the self-harming effects of humans’ destruction of nature, urging delegates at a deadlocked UN biodiversity conference in Colombia to “act.”

European Commission envoy Florika Fink-Hooijer said the “catastrophe” in Spain’s Valencia region earlier this week highlighted the link between biodiversity loss and human-caused climate change.

Worsening droughts and flooding cause the loss of plant species such as trees—which serve as a bulwark against some of the worst effects of global warming.

“If we act on biodiversity, we at least can buffer some of the climate impacts,” Fink-Hooijer said at a press conference in the city of Cali, host of the 16th Conference of Parties (COP16) to the UN’s Convention on Biodiversity.

“At this COP we really have a chance to act,” said the envoy, who is also the European Commission director-general for environment.

Funding hurdle

The summit, which started on October 21, is tasked with assessing, and ramping up, progress on nature protection plans and funding to achieve 23 UN targets agreed in 2022 to stop species destruction.

It is a followup to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework agreed in Canada two years ago, where it was decided that $200 billion per year be made available for biodiversity programs by 2030.

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This must include $20 billion per year going from rich to poor nations trying to reach the targets, which include placing 30 percent of the Earth’s land and sea under protection by 2030.

Due to wrap up on Friday, the talks in Cali remain stuck mainly on the modalities of funding, even as new research points to more than a quarter of animal and plant species facing the risk of extinction.

Developing countries have called for more money.

They also want a brand-new fund under the umbrella of the UN’s biodiversity convention, where all parties—rich and poor—would have representation in decision-making.

Rich countries insist they are on track to meet their funding targets. Most are opposed to a new fund.

Another point of contention is on how best to share the profits of digitally sequenced genetic data taken from animals and plants with the communities they come from.

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Such data, much of it collected in poor countries, is notably used in medicines and cosmetics that make their developers billions.

European Parliament member Cesar Luena, who is from Spain, on Thursday thanked delegates “for all the demonstrations of solidarity in this summit” as the flooding death toll soared beyond 150.

© 2024 AFP